Anagram
by The Werewolf Mage
Summary: The Daily Prophet features an anagram that is bugging Remus. Will he solve it or will he give it up?


Title: Anagram

Summary: _The Daily Prophet _features an anagram that is bugging Remus. Will he solve it or will he give it up?

Note: I love the joke in the first page of Lucy's diary in the Haunted Woods plot on Neopets. So I had to use it. This is where this came from. Tomorrow I will update a chapter fic, right now, I'm having fun with one shots.

One bright, sunny morning in their seventh year, Remus Lupin sat at the Gryffindor table, thumbing through his copy of _The Daily Prophet. _He found nothing of interest and was about to fold it and tuck it away when a jumble of letters caught his eye.

'Might be fun." he thought, reaching below the table to pluck his quill and a bit of parchment from his bag.

By the time breakfast was finished and James was rousing him from his seat, Remus had made no headway on the anagram.

"What exactly are you doing?" James asked, trying to keep Remus from running into anything as Remus scribbled away at his parchment, sending the occasional glance at the anagram.

"This anagram that was in the paper this morning. I thought I would have figured it out by now." Remus muttered.

Thankfully, they had History of Magic first thing, so he had time to hopefully figure out the anagram.

"No," he told himself, "the I doesn't belong with that... And what's with all the X's?"

James glanced over Remus's shoulder and asked, "Yeah, what IS with all those X's? Is this a trick or something?"

"I hope not." Remus began to scratch his chin with the end of his quill. Maybe it was a trick. Oh, well, it wasn't like he had anything important to do, like take notes.

"Figured it out yet?" James asked as the class packed their things at the end of the lesson. Sirius was rather sour, as he had taken notes because Remus would not.

"No..." Remus said slowly. "I've found the word 'help' and the word 'forcing' but other than that, I've got nothing."

"Well, give it up," Sirius told him as the three of them heading to Charms next. "It's probably a joke. I mean, there isn't enough U's to go with all those Q's and what can you possibly make with X's?"

But Remus wasn't going to give it up. He was determined to solve the anagram. But he did tuck it away long enough to practice his Searing Charm.

And once Flitwick praised him, he dove right back into his backpack and drug out the paper and his parchment and quill.

"Couldn't you make 'held'?" James asked, looking over Remus's shoulder yet again.

"I think you can." Remus scratched out a group of letters and wrote 'held' next to 'forcing' and 'help'. "But what could the rest possibly be?"

While the others ate lunch, Remus soon discovered the word 'extraneous' hidden among the remaining letters. He marked it on his parchment, his eyebrows nearly meeting in confusing.

What on earth could it possibly be?

He was starting to give it up, when he found 'being'. "Being held makes sense..." he said slowly. "Maybe a couple more minutes. I should have this."

But he found no other words during Divination or dinner that night. Maybe he could get James to help him.

But then he remembered James had Quidditch practice. So he headed upstairs and drew the hangings around his bed. He put the parchment, quill, and _Daily Prophet _on his bedside table, determined to leave it alone until the morning.

Not even five minutes later, he had picked it up yet again.

After much scribbling out of letters, he was almost certain he had solved the anagram. And by then, the other three had come upstairs and were getting ready for bed.

"Remus given up on that anagram?" he heard Sirius asked, pretty sure they thought he was asleep.

James did not say anything. He must have shrugged.

"No, I think I have it. Though it doesn't really make much sense." Remus said to them.

"Really?" James asked. "Well, let's hear it and see."

Remus straightened his parchment and read, "'Help I am being held hostage in an anagram factory and they are making me use extraneous X's and Q's XXQQXQXQQQXXQQXQ aaaaaaaaarrrrghhhh'."

After a moment's silence, Sirius asked, "Why would whoever wrote it write 'aaaarrrggghhh'?"

"Maybe he was attacked?" Peter asked.

"Or he was dictating." James suggested as he flopped onto his bed.

"I told you it was a joke." Sirius said, crawling into his own bed.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Remus said, crumpling the parchment and throwing it over his shoulder. He, too, settled down to sleep, though he was plagued with dreams of X's and Q's.


End file.
